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Finalising your takings

Finalising your takings helps you compare actual payments received with POS orders, allowing you to track revenue by payment type and avoid discrepancies. 

It's recommended to perform your takings daily. Lightspeed Restaurant app cache can only store up to 7 days' worth of unreconciled sales. Any sales that fall beyond 7 days may be erased from the app cache and permanently deleted.

What's in this guide?

Configuring your takings reconciliation
Finalising takings in the POS
Frequently asked questions

Configuring your takings reconciliation

Depending on your business workflow, your takings may be counted by different staff, registers, or at multiple times of the day. Select a takings reconciliation method, so Lightspeed Restaurant knows how you will perform takings.

To configure your takings reconciliation: 

  1. Log in to Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials. 
  2. From the navigation menu, select My site > Site Information
  3. Under Takings reconciliation, select how you want to finalise takings:
    • By Register: Select this if each register has its own dedicated cash drawer and you need to count takings separately per register. 
    • By Site: Select this if you finalise takings across all registers together, or if multiple registers share a single cash drawer. 
    • By Staff: Select if each of your staff members has their own cash register and reconciles their own sales at the end of the day.  
  4. Select Save.

Finalising takings in the POS

At the end of each trading period, it's important to finalise your takings in the POS to ensure accurate financial records and reporting. This process involves closing any open orders, entering payment totals, and reconciling any discrepancies. 

You would need either admin access or the Finalised Takings permission to finalise takings in the POS.

To finalise takings in the POS:

  1. Navigate to the POS, then tap the Menu (☰) icon. 
  2. Select Takings.
     
  3. (Optional) If there are open orders, a warning will appear prompting you to close those orders first before continuing. Select Go to Orders to close them before finalising takings. 
  4. Select Finalise
    Finalise takings screen
  5. You can also complete your takings without finalising open orders if needed. However, those sales will not be included in the reconciliation report, so it could affect your reporting accuracy.

  6. Enter your cash takings totals. You can choose between:
    • Counted: Enter the total cash amount directly.
    • Denominations: Enter totals by coin and note each denomination using a guided interface.

    Cash Takings screen

  7. Enter totals for other payment types:
    • Integrated payments: For card payments through an integrated payment terminal, the amounts are automatically reconciled. 
    • Manual payments: Enter the counted amount manually.
  8. Select Finalise Takings.
    Finalise Takings screen POS
  9. (Optional) If tips are enabled, you'll be prompted to withdraw your tips as cash. Select Yes to proceed. 
    Withdraw Tips as Cash_POS

Once you've finalised takings, you’ll be taken to the Takings History screen, where you can view or print a summary. The takings history is made of three columns:

  • Counted: What you physically counted for each payment type.
  • Recorded: What Lightspeed Restaurant recorded during the takings period.
  • Difference: The variance between your counted and the recorded totals.

To give you an idea of what you should be counting, navigate to Takings > Takings History before you begin. Any takings not yet finalised will be shown as Not finalised yet.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to grant special permission for my staff to finalise takings?

Yes. Staff must be granted Finalise Takings permission in order to finalise takings in the POS.

Can I still edit the takings amount after I have finalised my takings?

Once the takings are finalised, these are locked from editing to ensure the security and accuracy of the counts. If you missed some of your counted money from your takings, you can immediately enter a second takings entry with the extra amount included.

Where do I find how my sales amount for integrated delivery partners like Uber Eats or DoorDash?

Navigate to the POS Takings History for today's date, the one not finalised yet, where you can find the sales for each integrated delivery partner. You can copy those numbers in the Finalise Takings screen.

Can I edit the payment type for an order after it is paid?

Once orders are finalised, they are locked from editing. If you have entered the incorrect payment type during checkout, you can refund the order and reprocess it with the correct payment type.

Can I opt not to show my staff the expected amount for takings?

Yes, you can untick the View Current Takings permission for the staff in the Users section in Back Office. This ensures staff enter the actual counted amounts instead of copying Lightspeed's recorded totals. 

Can I take tips out of the takings for my staff?

If you have the Tipping feature and the permission to withdraw tips as cash is enabled, you'll be prompted if you’d like to withdraw tips upon finalising the takings. This will be recorded in the takings as Money Out.

What's next?

Set up Lightspeed Payments for secure, integrated payment processing.

Setting up Lightspeed Payments

Track and manage cash movements to stay on top of your cash flow.

Recording Money In/Out

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